Set Decorators

Here is what that looks like on the ground. We supply set decorators who take the production designer's concept and make each set feel genuinely inhabited — sourcing furniture, soft furnishings, artwork and the layered detail that turns a space into a believable world. On Belgian shoots our team places decorators who know the regional furniture and dressing houses, antique dealers and pro suppliers, and who can commission or build dressing when stock will not serve.

Here is how that works. They lead a buying and dressing crew, work closely with the props department on the line between props and dressing, and manage scene matching across long schedules. Belgium's open intra-EU market makes it simple to bring in extra dressing from neighbouring France, the Netherlands and Germany when a period or specific look demands it.

Here is how the picture comes together. Belgium's set-decoration pool serves a film culture that ranges from the unsentimental, lived-in interiors of the Dardenne brothers' Wallonian dramas to the period worlds of overseas shoots finishing through the Tax Shelter. The country's compact geography puts medieval interiors in Bruges and Ghent, Art Nouveau apartments in Brussels and modern and industrial spaces within short travel distances, giving decorators a top range of real interiors to dress and extend.

Here is what we have to work with. In practice, the work is hands-on. The crew base is trained through the country's arts schools and the apprenticeship route of working shoots, is multilingual across Dutch, French and English, and is skilled on both homegrown films competing for the Magritte and Ensor awards and large global service shoots. We match each set decorator to the period and scale of the production.